Hi guys. I've just gone into my final year at university to get my honours and I'm doing Formula Student (well, one part of it) as my project. My side of the project consists of Telemetry, sensors, seating, wheels, tyres and general ergonomics. I was wondering if anyone had any links for the telemetry and sensors side of things? I know MOTEC but that's as far as my knowledge goes I'm afraid.

Any other input on my subject matter would be MUCH appreciated.

Last edited by Scotracer on Wed Oct 01, 2008 8:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I use Bosch software, LapSim and WinDarab, for cars with Motronics injection (BMW only, in my case). LapSim is "universal" (that is, you can use it to simulate anything) but Win Darab is pegged to Motronics.

I also have a very old (bought around 2000) Brembo acquisition card with "ride height" sensors made with cheap measuring lasers, adapted locally, but I imagine it's discontinued, as I could not find the webpage again.

Warning: the data logger by Bosch costs around 2.300 euros, I bought the card from Brembo by U$300... I use it in karts, that explains it all.

Second warning: you can stop reading now, this is NOT what you're looking for, but it could help you tangentially.

I've also rigged "locally" a system by Vectra, a really old (founded in the XVIIIth century, I swear) french firm, using a GPS (with 3 meters precission) and a computer to get the track center coordinates, like this:

If you have a GPS you can get more or less accurate coordinates if you use WAAS. Otherwise, you have to pay around 500US to get good precission for a post-processing.

The Vectra system is originally developed for road inventory (I helped to install it for a colombian road agency). It's also rigged by me to use a taxicab distance measuring device (I swear I'm not making this up). You can laugh now...

Anyway, I'm sure that the guys around here that have specific experience with Formula Student can help you more. I just use all this paraphernalia to play around with the karts at our local track. I've learnt a lot (that's something easy to do, as I don't know a lot).

Something I've found really useful is to deduce the track coordinates from Google Earth pictures. You'll need ArcGis (or some GIS software capable of projecting coordinate systems) and AutoCAD or similar to get them. The results are pretty impressive, as I've explained at my site:

have you looked into Tire Testing Consortium for Formula SAE/Formula Student? Basically a whole lot of school pooled money together to get a whole bunch of tires for Formula SAE cars tested at CalSpan(at a vastly discounted rate). CalSpan is one of the world's premier automotive/military/aviation testing center, and is used by many F1/NASCAR/whathaveyou teams to get tire data on their flat-trac tester. I think most school pays somewhere in the region of $500 USD to get in, and you get all of the tire data they tested on a DVD. They test each tires at different camber, pressure and vertical load. For most teams this give them more than what they know to do with, but to some they can still find need for more detailed data. Most popular tire choice in the series have been tested, and there are plans to include more types of tires as well as newer models/compound as they become available, as they still have quite a bit of budget left as more schools have joined since the inital group. Manufacturers are also encouraged to donate their tires for testing as they also get ALL the data, including their competitors'....This is pretty much the only consortium of its kind in any racing series...

2) Use IR temp sensors for setting static camber and pressure. Even temperatures mid-corner is what you want.

3) Spring, bar, and DIFFERENTIAL (!!) to get good on-, neutral-, and off-throttle balance

4) Have your drivers practice their downshifts. Most FSAE drivers are terrible. I'd set up a square course for just practicing brake/downshift/trailbrake/corner/power-on.

5) Use your DAQ to work on driver training. Look for drivers that are hesitant.. that don't jump immediately from the gas to the brakes. Look for drivers that brake early and don't trailbrake. Run cone courses similar to comp.

6) Test at least 2 different tire types / manufacturers / or compounds. Initial grip and breakaway feel are very important in this series.

Grip is a four letter word. All opinions are my own and not those of current or previous employers.

Finish early is the most important thing you can do. If you can get in at least 2 weeks of testing time it'll make a huge difference. We have had at least 4 weeks of running time for every car since 2006 and you literally go into comp and expect nothing to break. And the more seat time you can give your drivers the better off you can be. Good driver can also mask deficiencies in these cars, since the driver levels are so different in the series.

hye is there anybody out there with costing experience in any formula 1 team??im doing a study on the rear wing analysis and came across the costs part, so in real life how much does it costs for a production of a formula 1 rear wing part...